I grew up staying at my maternal Grandmother's house most days while my Mom worked at the airport. My grandmother baked cookies and pastries, cooked tacos, and tamales, and tortillas, and took care of me and my cousin every day. It wasn't until she almost died that she told me that she worked very hard every day at a hotel to bring my Aunt to the United States legally. I heard later that she had been some kind of healer that cleaned the houses of wealthy people and she told me that she had...

My Mom moved to New Orleans from Honduras in the 1970s. She said she would miss her family so much that she would lock herself in her room and cry. When we watched that movie An American Tail after the song “Somewhere Out There” came on she said that was such a pretty song. I just listened to it again and imagined her missing her family. My Mom was a very lovely lady. She died almost 12 years ago now, and when she died people from Church told me they respected her because she didn’t...

Once upon a time I took a voyage to Oregon, where I experienced the magical world of fairies for the first time. They looked like daddy long legs gathering about the windows smeared with dew. They sprinkled me in fairy mist. The waterfalls hushed onto rivers and trails led up to their sources. The water was clear and cold, and the sounds of their little voices delighted me. I saw Horsetail Falls, Multnomah Falls, and Wahkeena Falls. As all the water fell, I saw fairies. They made me...